Showy flowers are beloved by many for their appearance by adding color, drama, and beauty to their surroundings. Showy flowers can brighten a room, a garden, even a mood and provide changing interest throughout the year. In addition, a flower's fragrance can be as memorable as its appearance; the scent of a particular blossom can evoke a past experience. For these reasons, flowers have been used since time immemorial in various settings. Flowers have been used ceremonially such as in funerals, weddings, and in sick visits and as part of romantic rituals. Flowers, usually cut, appear in centerpieces, bouquets, gifts, etc. Some flowers, particularly exotics and tropicals, are very desirable yet very expensive and usually available only seasonally. Unfortunately, a flower's beauty and fragrance are short-lived, the flower often dying only a few days after being cut from the plant.
Attempts have been made to recreate or retain the beauty of flowers with artificial flowers and with fresh flowers. Artificial flowers, typically made from plastic or silk, do not successfully capture the beauty of a fresh flower. Fresh flowers may be preserved chemically (See egs., U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,865,569; 4,061,490; 4,272,571; and 5,580,840) or by drying, but both methods drastically alter the appearance of the flower and increase its frailty. Moreover, dried flowers do not last in areas of high humidity. Even in ideal conditions, dried flowers do not last unless placed under glass.
Paraffin wax has also been used as a fresh flower preservative. (Making Gifts from Oddments and Outdoor Materials by Betsey B. Creekmore (Hearthside Press Inc. 1970)). The natural colors of fresh flowers are dimmed by a coating of paraffin wax and when exposed to the air, the paraffin wax-coated flowers lose their color, eventually turning the flower dark brown in color. Fresh flowers preserved with paraffin therefore last only for a short period of time, typically about a week. Moreover, preserving fresh flowers with paraffin requires extra caution since paraffin is a petroleum by-product, melts at 100 degrees Fahrenheit, is highly flammable, explosive and toxic and thus poses strict requirements for handling. Paraffin is also dangerous when ingested and thus no paraffin-coated flower is edible.
Accordingly, there has been a need for a novel method to preserve fresh cut flowers and the preserved flowers produced therefrom which substantially retain the appearance, size, shape, color and fragrance of the uncut fresh flower. There is a still further need for a method to preserve fresh cut flowers such that seasonal flowers can be preserved and thus available year-round to enjoy. Additionally, a method is needed which is all natural producing preserved flowers that can be used on food, such as a cake decoration and could be ingested assuming the flower was edible. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides other related advantages.